Thursday, September 30, 2010

I am so thrilled with how our maternity photos turned out. They were taken by Lora Patten in Grinnell, our hometown. In fact, the pictures were taken on Grinnell College's campus, which is where my husband did his undergraduate studies.

I really LOVE how all the pictures turned out, and have had a hard time deciding which ones are my favorites.....

Hendrix, we have loved you soooooo much ever since we knew you were going to be a part of our family!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Hendrix is now three weeks old, and I started back to work yesterday. It has been going really well so far, and I am feeling good about being back into a routine. For those of you who don't know, my job is as a nanny for two kiddos. I am bringing Hendrix with me to their house, and they are thrilled to get to hang out with him.

They made me feel very loved and missed when I got there.

Riley is a good little helper, and she really has an amazing touch with Hendrix. She manages to keep him really cozy and comfy and doesn't get bored of him at all. When he started to fuss just a little bit, she quietly started singing him the alphabet song. It. Was. So. Cute. :)

I can't get over how big Gabe looks to me......I am not sure if he just grew like a weed in the three weeks that I was gone, or if I just got so used to seeing my little peanut that Gabe just looks like a very big toddler. :) Either way, he is really fascinated with the "baby", and says "baby" like a hundred times a day. He tells me when he is crying and when he is sleeping, and he likes to go in and check on him while he is laying in the playpen.

He hasn't been interested in holding him yet, but he does like to come peer over my shoulder when I am holding him. He understands to be really gentle and likes to "pet" his head and legs.

Now to back up a little bit, Hendrix had his very first playdate on Friday of last week with one of my good friends' little girl, Abigail. Hendrix is only 12 hours older than Abigail, and I think they are destined to be lifelong pals. They both pretty much slept through the affair, but it was fun for us to hold each other's babies and share stories about their births.

Then on his three-week birthday we made our first family roadtrip and headed to Grinnell for the day. We enjoyed time with lots of family members, and Hendrix cheered for the Hawkeyes with daddy.

Meeting Uncle Jake and his girlfriend Katie for the first time, and getting held by Grandpa Karl for the first time. Hendrix was pretty much held nonstop for the entire day, and I think he was soaking up every minute of it! I actually was thankful for the 3-hour feedings in which I got to have him back because I was the one who needed to feed him. I love sharing him, but I didn't realize how much I would miss holding him when I didn't for such a long time. :) He has so much family that love him so much. He is a VERY lucky little guy!

Family Foto Time!

Hendrix went to church for the first time this weekend also. He looked so cute in his little button up shirt.

Then at small group he made some more friends.

All three of them were born within two weeks. Josie, on the top is the oldest and the only one that wasn't born early. She is a lil' bit bigger than our smaller kiddos that were born two weeks later and both early; Hendrix and Abigail.

We enjoyed swapping Momma stories, and are looking forward to the new dynamic that will be added to our small group with all these kiddos. :)

I think that should be all for now.......I did get my maternity pics back over the weekend though, and will post some of my favorites as soon as I get a chance. I am still trying to decide though since so many of them are amazing! We have an appointment to get Hendrix's first pics taken this Friday afternoon. I'm looking forward to some naked baby shots!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

We took Hendrix back to the doctor today to be weighed and he is now 7 lbs. 2 oz. The doctor was very pleased and impressed as this is a weight gain of 14 ounces in just one week. She said that she would have been happy with just half that much.

Because he is doing so well, she gave the go ahead for us to discontinue fortifying his milk, and to transition to solely breastfeeding. We have already started using the playtex nursers (which are the big boy bottles, in contrast to the fast-flow bottles that he was originally using in the hospital). My goal is to be breastfeeding primarily during the day by next week when I go back to work; and then to still give him a bottle at some point in the evening or night when Bud can help with the feedings. I will still have to pump a couple times a day to keep my milk supply up for now.

He is starting to really fill out, and right now you can see it primarily in his cheeks and tummy. I can't wait until he gets chubbier in the arms and legs too! :)

Here he is in a cute new outfit that Nana bought for him when we went shopping yesterday. My mom has been with us since Sunday evening, and she just left tonight. I am missing her already. It has been really awesome to have her here to help out and to just spend quality time with! We ventured all the way to Des Moines to go shopping yesterday, and came home with some special treats for Hendrix.

This was specifically for Daddy (and all my brothers, and in-laws......).

We also got some cute little hats for him to wear in his pictures next week. He is going to get some newborn "naked baby" pictures, and I wanted to find a way to add to his cuteness ;)

Hendrix is snuggling with Daddy as we speak -

this is pretty much his evening routine, and I love to watch them together.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

It is a little different for me to have my hubby get home from work at lunchtime and beeline it for his little boy before he even says hello to me. I can honestly say that I am not jealous, because seeing his love for his little boy couldn't mean more to me. He is a great daddy and I got quite a kick out of him trying to hold him while eating his lunch yesterday because he wanted to spend as much of that one hour with Hendrix as he possibly could. lol

Then he insisted on this new take on a bump picture!

When you put it this way, I don't really know he fit in there!

Hendrix had an eventful day yesterday spending time with some very special family members!

My grandparents, who live in Oskaloosa, came to visit for the afternoon and met Hendrix for the first time. They were both beaming while holding him!

My father-in-law also came by in the evening, and held Hendrix for the first time. He had seen and spent time with him while he was in the NICU, but I think he was pretty overwhelmed to finally have him in his arms. Doesn't he look pleased?

His Nana (my mom) has also been enjoying some special time with him as she has been staying with us for a couple days. She has been a HUGE help, as my hubs had to go back to work this week, and she is helping me to keep the house running and to take care of my little munchkin in the middle of the night so Bud can actually get some sleep. The time is going by very quickly, but we are enjoying every minute.

I left him with my mom this morning while I went to my dentist appointment. This was the first time that I had been away from him for very long (I thought I would only be gone for about an hour, but it ended up being two), and I really missed him. I have been counting my blessings ever since I got home that next week when I go back to work I get to take him with me and don't have to leave him with someone else. I don't think I could do it. Not yet anyways.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Hendrix turned two weeks old on Saturday! I can't believe how big my baby is getting! :) Here is a lil' clip of him having some play time on the floor. He spends more and more time each day awake and alert, and it is fun to see him interact with us and the things around him.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Hendrix had his first appointment with the pediatrician on Thursday afternoon, and weighed in at 6 lbs. 4 oz. The doctor said that there could be a variation on her scale of about 1-2 ounces from the scale that he had been weighed on at the hospital......but even so that is still incredible progress in just a few short days! (He was 5 lbs. 13.8 oz. on Tuesday) She was so pleased, but still wants to keep him taking the calorie supplement for a while to make sure that we don't regress. I am going to start trying to nurse him on both sides for 1 out of every 3 feedings starting tomorrow, and that will be our first step in trying to get him to breastfeed exclusively.

I had gone out and bought him a few little preemie outfits, and as you can see from the pictures, he fills them out very well! I imagine that he will outgrow them within a matter of weeks, and that is exciting because then he will maybe be ready to get into all the other cute clothes that we already had for him! :)

Dr. Alexander gave the go ahead for us to start incorporating tummy time into his daily routine. She wants us to put him on his tummy at least twice a day for 15 minutes while he is awake so he can spend time strengthening his neck muscles.

He is not really sure what he thinks about it! In fact, he spent a lot more time using his feet to push himself up than using his neck muscles, and definitely fussed through the whole thing.

Daddy was right next to him talking to him and cheering him on and I am sure that he will get better the more he practices! :)

We went out for our first family "date" last night. We took the little guy to dinner at El Azteca, which is our favorite Mexican restaurant here in Ames. The doctor had given me the okay to take him in public yesterday, though she said that she really wants us to protect him from being touched by strangers. His immune system is still compromised, so when we take him out we need to try to keep him covered and/or in his carseat or another type of baby carrier. (He is a little bit too small for the baby bjorn yet, but I can't wait to use that as it will make it easier to protect him!) We have to be vigilant to tell people that they can look, but not touch; which I didn't realize was going to be so difficult! I took him to target to get more of his calorie supplement and tons of people were like "Is there is a baby in there?????", wanting to lift the blanket to look at him. Might have to take Daddy so he can be the bad guy! Anyways, we had a really nice dinner, and just tucked him on the inside corner of the booth. He was quiet and asleep the whole time, and it was really nice to enjoy an evening connecting with my hubby. ;)

Both Bud and I started reading him some stories last night around bedtime. He seemed interested in hearing our voices, but wasn't interested at all in the pictures! LOL The stories basically just put him to sleep.

Look at that sweet sleeping child! He has this thing about getting one or both of his hands out of his swaddling. Though the swaddling definitely soothes him to sleep the best, he also kind of really wants to be free.

Now we are all dressed and ready for the weekend! We don't really have any plans, though we have some things that we want to do around the house and yard to get ready for fall. I have had my box of fall decorations sitting in the dining room for a couple weeks now, and I think I was just waiting for it to really feel like fall before I got out my pumpkins. Now I am going to have to get out the box of long-sleeved clothes and sweaters so we have something to wear when we wake up to only 58 degree weather. Better get busy with my projects!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Last night Hendrix lost his little umbilical cord and the the little plastibell from his circumcision in his diaper in the middle of the night. We were excited because we had been planning to give him a bath this morning anyways, and this means that we were able to do more of an immersion bath than just a little spongebath.

I would say this picture is a little deceiving because it almost makes it look like he was enjoying it. On the contrary, he was pretty grumpy about it. I think he was cold and just wondered what the heck was going on!

Here you can see how he just got kind of scrunched up at the bottom of the tub. He didn't like being stretched out at all! He did great though, and it didn't take long at all to get him clean.

We wrapped him all snuggly in a towel. This was after he pooped in the blanket that daddy had carried him into the bathroom wearing. Also after he pooped in the towel that we wrapped his body in while we were washing his hair. He then pooped in this towel also while I was trying to get him dressed. He's a lil' stinker sometimes! I had to fold back the adorable fish on his towel's hood because it hung all the way down past his chin. He's still just a little guy! lol

Well, now that his cord is off, I went to reassess whether we would be ready to transition to cloth diapering. We have been told that disposables are much better at the very beginning because it lets that cord breathe much better, but now that we have reached that milestone, I would rather not keep buying disposables. The cloth diapers I have are size small and they are supposed to fit babies starting at just 5 lbs. Take a look at one of them next to the newborn pampers that he is currently wearing:

I think that whatever 5 lb. baby these diapers are supposed to fit, must be larger than my 5 lb. baby. It is on the smallest snap setting, and I realize that it wouldn't be a huge deal if is goes all the way up to his armpits (in fact, it might make his clothes fit him better since most of them are a little bit big on him right now!), but the elastic around the legs doesn't get nearly small enough. I could fit both legs in one leg hole if I wanted it to be snug enough to not leak. :( Guess we will have to buy another box of disposables and wait it out.

Look at this sweet pumpkin after he was all clean and ready for the day!

I think he was posing in this one. He knows how much mommy likes to take pictures! :)

Now, I think I should back up a little bit and tell you about our return trip to the hospital yesterday for his first check-up. The visit was with Homeward, which are the nurses that specialize in lactation counseling, and they wanted to weigh him and watch him nurse to assess how he and I are doing with that.

Daddy was responsible for the hairdo before we left for the appointment. He and I both are just thrilled that our lil' boy has enough hair to even play with! I'm hoping he doesn't lose it all........

At the appointment Hendrix was a rockstar! They weighed him initially and he was up to 5lbs 13.8 oz (which is a weight gain of 3.8 oz in just two days!). Then I nursed, and right now he is just going 10 minutes on one side, and then we finish the rest of the feeding with the pumped breastmilk that has had fortified calories added to it. After that 10 minutes, the nurse weighed him again so we could get some sort of an idea of how much milk he is actually getting - and he was up to 5 lbs 14.7 oz. That means he got almost a whole ounce! Currently our goal is to get him to eat about 2 ounces every feeding, though just 1 1/2 ounces would still be enough for him to gain weight. He is doing better than we expected!

This is what he looks like after he eats. Really lumpy. :)

Mommy and Daddy are getting used to a lil' less sleep, and are still thinking every single minute is SOOOOO worth it because we have our adorable little Hendrix!

We have our first follow-up visit with his pediatrician tomorrow so I am sure we will have more news to post after that. In the meantime, I need to go catch some snuggles with my son!

About Me

i am married to the best partner and we have two little people that we think are pretty great! the four of us have a pretty sweet life in a super old house, playing and dreaming about our next adventure.